NLM FY2023 Grants Funding Plan  

Introduction  

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), in Bethesda, Maryland, is a part of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Since its founding in 1836, NLM has played a pivotal role in translating biomedical research into practice. It is the world's largest biomedical library and the developer of electronic information services that deliver trillions of bytes of data to millions of users every day. For more about the library’s mission and organization, see https://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/index.html.   

NLM’s Extramural Programs Division provides grants to support basic and applied research in biomedical informatics and data science, health information sciences, bioinformatics and public health informatics, as well as for research training in these areas. NLM offers two unique resource grant programs: NLM Information Resources to Reduce Health Disparities grants and Grants for Scholarly Works on biomedical topics.  

Budget Information for FY2023  

Current Appropriation: The Department of Health and Human Services, including NIH, will operate under the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Public Law 117-328), signed into law on December 29, 2022. The bill provides FY2023 appropriations to federal agencies through September 30, 2023. See the following NIH Guide Notice for information about NIH Fiscal Operations for Fiscal Year 2023: NOT-OD-23-071.

Guidance on Salary Limitation for Grants and Cooperative Agreements for FY2023 is available at NOT-OD-23-056, and information on Legislative Mandates in Effect for FY 2023 is available at NOT-OD-23-072. Additional guidance on predoctoral and postdoctoral stipend levels, tuition/fees and training-related expenses for NLM training grants are posted at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/ep/trainingdirectors.html.    

Funding Strategy 

NLM EP distributes its resources among many diverse programs and mechanisms. The institute is committed to funding the largest number of meritorious projects possible, while allowing the flexibility needed to support selected program priorities and respond to emerging scientific opportunities. 

NLM establishes general guidelines for funding based on scientific merit, responsiveness to the institute's priorities, and availability of funds. 

Competing Awards:

Decisions on competing grants are based on review of individual applications. NLM uses the overall impact score as the starting point for decisions about awards, along with innovation, potential impact of proposed research, and portfolio balance.  NLM also considers the experience of the principal investigator as a decision factor, to assure that investigators at all levels of experience have research support.  

• • For experienced investigators, applications with impact scores of 25 or better are the most likely to be considered for funding. 
  • For Early Stage investigators (ESI), applications with impact scores of 30 or better are the most likely to be considered for funding.  

• For fellowship applications with impact scores of 30 or better are the most likely to be considered for funding.  

All grant awards are subject to the availability of funds.  

Budget Guidelines 

Competing Awards:  Competing grants will be funded at levels and duration based on programmatic and grants management funding recommendations. Generally, competing RPGs (R01, R21, R15) will be supported as follows:

• R01 using modular budget (≤ $250,000 direct costs, exclusive of subaward F&A), R21, and R15: 90% of the recommended level.
• R01 using categorical budget (> $250,000 direct costs, exclusive of subaward F&A): 85% of the recommended level.

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